Chewelah boys continue to roll

The Chewelah boy’s basket­ball team opened Northeast A League play with a pair of wins last week in three games.
The wins earned the hot Cou­gars a spot atop what promises to be a wild league race.
Back on Jan. 3, the Cougars opened up NEA play at Freeman (7-6, 2-1). Chewelah came out a bit flat and dropped a 62-46 de­cision.
Chewelah was unable unable to get much go­ing in the first half against an aggressive, physical Scotties’ team.
“Right from the get-go, they were pressing and we did­n’t re­spond too well,” said head coach Rocky Verbeck. “Then they had that big second quarter and we didn’t get back into it.”
Trail­ing 38-18 at half, the Cougars came out in the second half and played a little better, but never threatened.
“The kids battled,” said coach Verbeck, “but it’s hard to come back after be­ing down 20 at half.”
Cody Un­fred scored 22 points for the Scotties, while Ben John­stone dumped in 22 for the Cougars.
On Friday, Chewelah traveled to Nine Mile Falls to play Lakeside and came away with a hard fought 56-54 victory. The Cou­gars worked hard for an early lead and held a 28-22 lead at half. Chewelah managed to ex­tend their lead to eight points by the end of the third quarter, and they would need every point to hold on for the victory. Lakeside outscored the Cougars 16-10 in the fourth quarter and had the game tied at 50 when John­stone gave the Cougars a 53-50 lead with a three-pointer in the final minute.
“We got away with one there,” said coach Verbeck. “We did everything we could to give it away...with turnovers and missed free throws (1/9 in the fourth quarter). We were very fortunate to get the win.”
Johnstone again led the Cou­gars with 15 points, while Con­ner Moffatt scored 13 for Lakeside.
Saturday brought the Newport Grizzlies (8-4, 2-1) to JHS and the Cougars treated the home crowd to an exciting game and sent them home happy with a 64-59 victory.
Chewelah held Newport star Jake Wiley to only eight first half points, but the rest of the Grizzlies chipped in to cut an early eight-point Cou­gars lead to four by halftime.
In the second half, Newport wasted no time erasing the defi­cit and even pushed out to a seven-point lead before the Cou­gars responded and cut the de­ficit to 47-46 after three quar­ters.
Chewe­lah got going in the fourth quarter behind John­stone. He hit three three-point­ers from the corners and scored nine of his team high 20 points in the fourth.
The Cougars outscored New­port 18-12 to earn the five- point win.
“We are fortunate to be where we are,” said coach Verbeck. “Newport is really good and I think they just ran out of time on their comeback.”
Wiley scored 17 second half points for a game high 25, while Derek Smith added 18 more for the Cougars.
Another contribut­ing factor in the last two victor­ies has been the bench play.
“Our bench has been really key,” Verbeck said. “They give our starters a rest and we have had enough legs in the fourth quarter to respond.”
THIS WEEK
This week the Cougars (10-3, 2-1) traveled to Riverside (4-9, 0-3) on Tuesday and on Friday Colville travels to JHS to wrap up the first half of NEA play. Both games are scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m.